First year of college.
This entry was posted on 2/21/2006 10:02 PM and is filed under History.
So not much happened my first year of college. I still was wanting to redo the stereo, but couldn't afford to do anything. Since I didn't have any wood tools I was forced to make my new box out of fiberglass. That's when I first learned I really don't like working with fiberglass. Also the first of the second run of mistakes, I didn't design a way to remove the box from the car. If that car is still running today, I guarantee you there's a fiberglass sub box in the back well.
The main event that happened that first year was taking my car to a standard repair shop for the last time. After an over-zealous jump across a short bridge I ripped a hole in my oil pan. I didn't know it until after I drove 5 hours back to school. I think I had 40 messages and the phone ringing when I made it there; my Dad curious about the 2 quarts of oil in his driveway. Good thing no one had cell phones back then, I would have never known I could have made it.
Back on topic, I secured a used oil pan and found one of the more reputable shops in Starkville. As some of you might know, replacing the oil pan requires raising the engine up about 2". Day one at the shop must have involved jacking the engine up and removing the old pan. 5:00PM came and everyone packed up. They thoughtfully shut my hood for the night...some how forgetting the engine was in the way. This produced two creases in the hood from the AC compressor and alternator. Of course the shop denied responsibility and I was stuck with a damaged hood on an otherwise perfect car.
That was about the time that I declared only myself or people I knew would do anything my car. Aside from things I just can't do in a garage (body repair, paint) I would learn how to do it. That involved a lot of mess-up, mess-up, get it right. I just couldn't believe something as simple as changing an oil pan could result in body damage.
Sure is a long entry for 'not much happened'.
So about the body repair statement above, that's mainly repair. I started doing all final alignment of body pieces after that year too. Seems I some how wound up on top of a culvert and had some pretty good front frame damage. When I got the car back from the wonderful people at Dossett Pontiac in Hattiesburg the whole front end just didn't seem lined up right. I inquired about it and was told that's the best it could get after a wreck. A year later, after getting into modifying the car, I noticed the lower fender mount was bent over. Turns out this is a common problem from when people try to jack the car up (I'm sure mine was bent from the culvert). When I bent that mount back, the fender magically lined back up with the door. A chain reaction of panel moving later, the whole front end was back where it should have been. I was able to accomplish something in 30 minutes a DEALER'S BODY SHOP said was impossible. No one cares anymore.. Hopefully I can be different, working to make someones car better rather then working to get paid.
The fun (and quicker to type) parts came after I returned home to serve some time at a junior college.
